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EXCERPT:
Israel loves President Trump, but “the security of Israeli citizens comes first,” the country’s far-right national security minister said Monday.
“We love President Trump but first and foremost – Israeli soldiers, our fighters, our residents, the security of Israeli citizens comes first,” Itamar Ben-Gvir said in a statement.
“No more daredevil ceasefire,” he added.
Ben-Gvir, who has been sanctioned by the U.K., Canada, Australia and several other countries for inciting violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, said the deaths of Israeli soldiers taking part in operations against Iran-backed Hezbollah in southern Lebanon last week showed “the containment policy failed.”
He criticized “years of measured responses” and “attempts to buy temporary peace” with Iran and its proxy forces – Hezbollah being the most serious threat to Israel among them – and said those initiatives had been interpreted by Israel’s enemies as “weakness.”
“The State of Israel must be safe, if not – Beirut will look like Beit Hanun,” he said, referring to a city in Gaza that was once home to more than 50,000 Palestinians. The city was “level[ed] to the ground” during Israel’s war with another Iranian proxy, Hamas, according to Israel’s defense chief.